Messing With His Mind
by turbomagnus
Summary: When Jarod makes one of his late night phone calls, Miss Parker decides to have a little fun.


Disclaimer: I don't own Pretender. You know how you know I don't own Pretender? I wouldn't have let it fall prey to the Curse of The Intelligent Shows and end up getting cancelled just when things were getting good, that's how.

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"Messing With His Mind"  
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

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With a cat-like smirk, the woman answered the phone when it rang at the same time as it had so many times before and let the other person start the conversation.

"Hello, Parker," the man on the phone spoke.

"Hello, Jarod..." Parker replied, then her smirk deepened as she continued, cutting off anything that Jarod had been about to say, "What are you wearing?"

On the other end of the phone call, Jarod froze, "Did you just ask what I'm wearing?"

Parker gave a throaty moan, "Mm, do you want to know what _I'm_ wearing, Jarod?"

"Parker... are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Jarod, it's just that I'm lying in a king-sized bed, cold and oh-so-alone... Wearing a thin, flimsy, almost see-through bit of lingere..."

She smiled as she heard his very audible gulp.

"But that's enough about me, Jarod, what about you? I asked you what are you wearing..."

For the first time in his life, Jarod's obscenely high intelligence quota abandoned him, "Uh... pants... shirt..."

"Tee-shirt or button-up?"

"Buttons," Jarod managed to collect himself, "Parker, really, are you sure you're alright?"

"Buttons..." Parker purred out the word, "The kind of shirt a girl can just tear open to run her hands across your chest, isn't it, Jarod..."

"Seriously, Parker, is everything okay? You're acting a little..." 'seductive, wanton, sexy,' all ran through Jarod's mind before he finally settled on, "Out of character."

"I have needs, Jarod; I'm a woman and you seem to be the only constant man in my life... Run the simulation on that, Pretender."

"Parker, maybe you should go to the hospital and let them make sure there's nothing wrong..."

"Maybe you should come by and play Doctor with me, instead."

That was, at least, a step back towards familiar territory for the rogue Pretender, "Come by and end up caught in a waiting Centre trap, nice try, Parker."

"And what if I say I only want to catch you for myself, hm?"

"The Centre's 'good soldier' doing something for herself?" Jarod actually managed to scoff at the idea, "You'll forgive me if I find that hard to believe."

"That's the problem, Pez-boy - I've been doing it for myself and I'm tired of it, so I thought about having you come and do it for me."

While the majority of his mind was occupied with the meaning of what Parker had just said, a smaller part of Jarod's mind was actually able to consider the fact that this entire phone call had left him on the proverbial 'back foot' almost from the beginning. It wasn't, fortunately or unfortunately, something he was entirely unused to when it came to situations that required social skills instead of knowledge that could be learned from studying, he'd just never expected it to happen during one of his phone calls to taunt - that is, to attempt to persuade Parker.

"I think this conversation's gotten a little out of hand," Jared finally muttered.

"Well, Jared..." Parker started to say, only for him to cut her off.

"Control! Gotten a little out of control..." Jared rephrased.

"You're not as much fun tonight as you usually are," Parker teased.

"That depends on a person's idea of fun, Parker," the Pretender answered, "And I think we both know that the Centre's idea of 'fun' is criminal."

"Centre, Centre, Centre," Parker sighed, "Why is it always the Centre with you, Jared? After all, you're the one who keeps bringing it up tonight."

"If you're trying to get me to let down my guard and let it slip where I am, it's not going to work, Parker."

"Trust me, Jared, that's _not_ what I'm trying to convince you to do."

Over the telephone line, Parker heard Jared let out a long - almost too long, close to exaggerated - sigh before he spoke again, "It seems like this phone call isn't going to accomplish anything - goodnight, Ms. Parker."

A click followed by a dial-tone told her that Jared had hung up the phone and she moved it away from her ear to hold it in front of her for a moment before moving to place the reciever back in its cradle. As she hung the phone up, Parker, sitting in her wingback chair wearing her skirt and blouse, laughed freely.

"I can't believe he fell for that," Parker managed to say, shaking her head.


End file.
